USA

Every day I receive dozens of emails. Most of these emails (at least 30) are about Myanmar’s inhuman treatment of the minorities. It is simply depressing to read the sad stories of their extermination, aptly termed the slow-burning genocide by Dr. Maung Zarni, a fellow human rights activist.

What a dramatic week this past one has been in the U.S. capital! After writing about the POTUS last week I had no intention of getting back to Trump politics this week, but given all the hullaballoo, excitement and even the nervousness with all the major news events unfolding, I simply could not ignore revisiting the subject.

On Friday, Sean Spicer, President Trump’s spin master, a.k.a. the White House press secretary, resigned after telling President Trump that he vehemently disagreed with his appointment of Anthony Scaramucci, a New York financier, as his new communications director. After offering Scaramucci the job on Friday morning, Trump asked Spicer to stay on as press secretary, reporting to Scaramucci. But Spicer rejected the offer.

I don’t know where to begin. In many parts of Asia, Africa and Latin America, the regimes in power are acting like the Pharaohs of the time of Moses (Musa alayhis salam). They feel no accountability and have no remorse for their criminal activities. National wealth is abused and consumed as personal wealth. Their arrogance and criminality knows no bounds. They have enacted laws (often through kangaroo parliaments, and if need be, via kangaroo courts) to empower them so much that they have become the absolute winners where everyone else loses. Naturally, absolute power has corrupted them absolutely.

The two-day annual meeting of the G20—the leaders of the world’s 19 wealthiest nations plus the European Union — has wrapped up in Hamburg, Germany with a closing speech from its host. The G-20 comprises Argentina, Australia, Brazil, China, Germany, France, Britain, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Canada, South Korea, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Turkey, the U.S. and the European Union.

President Donald Trump had an eventful week visiting Saudi Arabia, Israel and some European cities including the Vatican City where he met with the Pope. He was bestowed with the highest civilian/national award in the Kingdom.
There, as brilliantly noted by the veteran journalist Robert Fisk, Trump said he was not in Saudi Arabia to “lecture” – but then told the world’s Islamic preachers what to say, condemned “Islamist terrorism” as if violence was a solely Muslim phenomenon and then announced like an Old Testament prophet that he was in “a battle between good and evil”.

Ramadan, the Muslim month of fasting, is approaching fast. Through fasting from dawn to dusk a Muslim experiences hunger and thirst, and sympathizes with those in the world who have little to eat or drink every day. It teaches him/her to be charitable. Through increased charity, Muslims develop feelings of generosity and good-will toward fellow human beings.

Last weekend, April 29, was Donald Trump’s 100th day in office as the POTUS. Protest rallies were held in many parts of the USA. Tens of thousands of demonstrators also assembled in the U.S. capital for the latest installment of the regular protests that punctuate the Trump era.

Recently, the Forbes has published the list of world’s billionaires. In it for the fourth year in a row, Bill Gates was named the richest man in the world. The number of billionaires increased 13% to 2,043 from 1,810 in 2016; this is the biggest change in over 30 years of tracking billionaires globally.

There is no doubt that the rise of Daesh, which claims to be the new vanguard of the global jihadist movement, and the establishment of its caliphate in Syria and Iraq in the summer of 2014 represents a turning point in the evolution of global terrorism.